Do you know what API is & How API benefit us?
API is a tool that is most complex yet frequently used.
In short, It is the brain of the machine.
An API just like a car/bike’s control unit. It send signals/message to the engine from the input of the driver.
When a driver step on the gas, the control unit send signals to the engine to the combustion engine thus moving the vehicle forward. The dedicate input of the driver foot to the pedal send different signals to the engine to determine the amount of fuel injected and air sucking in to produce the power for lateral acceleration. Not only it controls the engine but also various part of the vehicle such as air-condition, safety lock/unlock, windows, tyre monitoring pressure system, airbag system etc.
Can you imagine a car without a control unit?
There will be no remote control, keyless start ignition instead a traditional keys to unlock and starting a car by cranking the key to the keyhole.
Benefits of API
The end day, uses of API is to make our lives easier and convenient.
- Connectivity & Productivity
- Innovation
- Marketing
- Cost
- Customer/client experience
Connectivity & Productivity
API boast connectivity and productivity just like a car example where modern key fob can be use to display many parameters of the vehicle status as compared to early days manual key fob that serve only specific purpose thus increase productivity through many uses.
Innovation
API allow business to be creative & innovate new products / services to meet customer’s demand and explore new avenue for growth / revenue. Gartner affirms that APIs are important in reducing the friction usually caused by a bimodal IT strategy; that is, where legacy systems (Mode 1) are run alongside flexible, innovative solutions and approaches (Mode 2).
APIs can act as the connecting layer that allows for a more coherent interaction of the two modes, leading to the deployment of innovative and feature-rich applications. With APIs, you can flawlessly extract value from legacy data sources and enhance your current systems’ capabilities.
Marketing
While opening up to new avenue of products / services, API allow them to expand their reach and penetrate new market frontiers that otherwise could not have been fronted.
For example, IBM released the Watson API to allow developers to take advantage of its state-of-the-art AI technology and implement it into various use cases. As a result, IBM has galvanized a large number of third-parties and expanded its reach in a wide range of industries, including travel, shopping, and medical care etc.
Cost
The greatest benefits of APIs for businesses is the ability to save costs. Since APIs significantly reduce the development effort, using them to create applications is a great way of reducing costs.
Consuming APIs frees developers to concentrate on refining the unique capabilities of their apps faster, which assists enterprises to save resources and money.
Customer/client experience
By leveraging APIs’ capabilities, businesses can create new and effective ways of interacting with client / customers, especially in the current digital age when consumers demand top-notch experiences.
With APIs, developers can create solutions that meet specific client expectations, something that could be difficult to achieve without them.
For example, many brands use APIs to deploy innovative artificial intelligence and predictive analytics technology that analyzes a buyer’s unique journey and recommends the “next possible action”. This improves the customers’ shopping experience and yields more sales.
In Conclusion,
The business benefits of APIs are vast. They are powerful tool that allow businesses to generate a good return on investment. APIs have become a critical catalyst that drives the advances of most modern organizations. Separating the contender from the pretender.
It’s what you need to revolutionize the way you do business in the current digital age.
Want to know how API can benefit your data and your business? Chat with us more about API X Data Analytics!
